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Sunday, June 08, 2014

2014 Butterfly Encounter

This year, our class got 20 Painted Lady larvae but released only 14 butterflies in the garden early June when it was warm enough and lilacs were already in bloom. Whatever happened to the other six larvae, you might wonder. Just like before, the big cup of artificial food that came with the kit was not enough to feed all the hungry caterpillars that were growing each day. As always, I bought hollyhocks to sustain some of them. What was unusual though was that some ate only a bit of the hollyhock leaves while the others just shied away from them and had to be returned to their artificial diet, which was nearly gone. Hence, I prayed that they all morph into chrysalides over the weekend (before they all starve to death) and most of them did except for three that eventually died from starvation and one that was stepped on after falling through the net. This week, 14 beautiful Painted Lady butterflies emerged from their chrysalides while two chrysalides turned black, which means that the pupae had probably died of infection. I moved the two out of the butterfly house carefully so as not to break them as I suspected that they might have the foul odour of a rotten egg, and all 18 children would be screaming “Eww!” The only thing I wanted after the children’s daily observation and reporting on this life cycle and metamorphosis was for them to admire this wonderful creation.
Jamison/07/06/2014

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Are you under stress? Take a siesta just like this!

Think I'll go out to Alberta,Weather's good there in the fall.I got some friends that I could go to working for,Still I wish you'd change your mindIf I asked you one more time,But we've been through that a hundred times or more.

Four strong winds that blow lonely,Seven seas that run high,All those things that don't change, Come what may.If the good times are all gone,And I'm bound for moving on.I'll look for you if I'm ever back this way.

If I get there before the snow flies,And if things are going good,You could meet me if I send you down the fare.But by then it would be winterNot much for you to doAnd those winds sure can blow cold way out there